


Inconclusive

by orphan_account



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Gay-panic, ace-Abby, bi-Erin, bi-panic, extended version spoilers, we're dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 10:51:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8159561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Based on the tumblr prompt by @bi-kru for Maryne about Erin having a "bi-panic" over Holtzmann's assumption that they are dating and Abby has to knock some sense into her. Holtzbert.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MufasaTheChill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MufasaTheChill/gifts).



> Hey guys! The link to what started this glorious idea can be found here: http://toodrunktofindaurl.tumblr.com/post/151068342151/thought-what-if-erin-had-crushed-on-holtz 
> 
> Also if you don't know who Maryne is, shame on you, go read her fic Blackout! :3 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
> 
> SPOILERS AHEAD for anyone who hasn't seen the deleted scenes of the Ghostbusters Extended Edition.

Erin was not homophobic whatsoever, she had never considered herself to look down upon others based on their lifestyle choices – unless they were obviously deranged psychopaths who intended harm upon others, _that_ she couldn’t avoid passing slight judgement – but being against another persons' sexuality? Absolutely not.

 

She’d been very understanding when Abby had come out to her in college about being asexual and she even made yearly donations to the Human Rights Campaign and other charities that looked after the betterment of equal rights.

 

But Erin had never considered _herself_ to fall anywhere but “straighter than straight” on the Kinsey scale.

 

Certainly she’d noticed girls before,  _everyone_ had at least one or two gay thoughts at one point in their life - in middle school when hormones began to rage and young girls around her became softer, curvier, more delicate whereas boys just grew smellier and harrier. She was only human, after all, but she'd never acted upon those thoughts and that's what mattered -  _right?_

 

So it came as a surprise to her when she first met Dr. Jillian Holtzmann – whose first sentence was undoubtedly a poor attempt at a pick-up line gone wrong – but had Erin floundering nonetheless, for a response to what shouldn’t have been flirting, but possibly just a question from the attractive younger woman.

 

Holtzmann was an enigma. One that no matter how hard Erin tried, never fit perfectly into any of her perfect little boxes that helped her to compartmentalize people she met.

 

Holtzmann was funny, kind, brilliant, a little weird and yes, at times _dangerous_ with her blatant disregard for general lab safety. But what was worse was how she managed to scare Erin completely, not for the way she made Erin _feel_ things that she absolutely hadn’t, nor _shouldn’t_ be feeling for a coworker, let alone another woman.

 

* * *

 

“Kevin; that’s a _manly_ name,” Erin was grateful for the distraction from the blatant peacocking horse-and-pony show that Holtzmann had just put on in front of her, dancing around to _DeBarge_ of all things and setting things on fire, then putting it out while maintaining rather forward eye-contact that Erin had been unable to tear herself away from.

 

Thus, the handsome and very much _safer_ diversion was welcomed and as time leapt forward, Erin learned to take Holtzmann’s flirting in stride. Usually deflecting it tenfold by hitting on Kevin, touching Kevin inappropriately or staring at Kevin when Erin originally would have been staring at Holtzmann who would turn around and Erin would catch herself just in time.

 

Kevin was safe. Kevin gave her a distraction to help her when she wanted to ignore the swarm of butterflies she’d feel in her stomach every time she could sense Holtzmann’s eyes on her from across the lab after Erin would force herself to laugh at a joke that Kevin had told her – that she really couldn’t say was funny, she wasn’t even sure it was a joke, come to think of it – or the small flip her heart did in her chest after Abby revealed later to her that the Swiss Army Knife Holtzmann had given to her was one of her more prized possessions, having belonged to her beloved grandfather who’d passed some years ago – or the way her heart was in her throat from shock and felt a surge of emotion and _something she wouldn’t name_ coil hot behind her navel after Holtzmann single-handedly took on a literal _army_ of ghosts with her “new toys” during the Rowan incident.

 

* * *

 

 _“…I’d talk to you at an AA meeting…”_ Erin’s heart was sure to fail on her if she couldn’t get it under control.

 

 _“…The purpose of life is to love and to love is what you have shown me…”_ Erin felt tears sting her eyes and then her face burned as Holtzmann locked eyes with her as she said this line in particular.

 

 _“…It catches ghosts, and it transports them somewhere – I’m not sure where but something tells me it’s probably_ _Michigan…”_ Erin’s stomach dropped along with her jaw, in shock – wondering if Holtzmann’s smirk at her at that statement was intentional or perhaps she’d imagined it. There was no way the engineer could possibly be deliberately sending ghosts to the state in which Erin had been raised – let alone where her non-believing parents still resided.

 

 _“Oh, hello, I didn’t realize anyone else was here,”_ Erin was grateful for the distraction of the newcomer – Dr. Gorin, she learned a moment later – and as Holtzmann introduced them Erin felt herself grow faint with Holtzmann’s addition.

 

“Yes, yes and we’re dating,” Holtzmann pointed directly at Erin, making no mistake that she meant her words when she presented Erin to Dr. Gorin who sized her up behind her thick black frames at that.

 

“What? No!” Erin panicked, throat tightening as her heart leapt up into it. Abby however, was beside her and nodding in agreement to Holtzmann’s bold statement.

 

“No, I-I’m dating our receptionist!” Erin’s smile was tight, _forced_ as she argued Holtzmann’s lie with her own.

 

“That is not accurate,” Abby disagreed and Erin scowled at her friends’ betrayal. Abby of course knew that Erin had been conflicted for months over her inability to complete thoughts around the engineer.

 

“Whoops!” Holtzmann looked a little taken aback at first, but rolled with it and Erin shook her head in shock as she told her mentor “Ok, back to the drawing board on _that_ one,” and hummed awkwardly, glancing back at Erin and dropped her gaze.

 

“Right, well – nice to meet you, Dr’s,” Dr. Gorin stated and went back to scanning a containment unit.

 

Abby elbowed Erin with a piercing gaze and tilted her head over toward the blonde who was now avoiding making eye contact with either of them and stiffly jotting down notes on a blueprint.

 

“What?” Erin disputed under her breath. Abby’s eyes narrowed.

 

“Don’t you _what_ me, you’re not _dating_ Kevin!” Abby whisper-yelled. Erin’s eyes widened but it seemed that Holtzmann had left them to their own devices and was on the other side of the lab, cackling at something that Dr. Gorin had pointed out.

 

“I know that, but I’m also not dating _Holtzmann_ either! Why would she even say that?!” Erin was baffled, her cheeks tinged with the oncoming signs of a blush as she fought to keep her internal panic under control.

 

_Did Holtz actually think they were a thing? Had she caught on to Erin’s staring? Or worse – did Abby tell her?_

 

“Did you tell her?!” Erin squeaked, full-on panicking now.

 

“What? No! Get your head on right, Erin – that _was_ Holtzmann’s way of asking you out!” Abby crossed her arms with a shake of her head.

 

“What? Holtzmann – you mean-? But, but I’m not – _we_ aren’t… are you saying that-?”

 

“That she likes you and has been flirting with you for close to eight months now?” Abby’s eyebrows were at her hairline. “Yes.”

 

“But I’m not -”

 

“Erin, honey, I think you’re having what they like to call a _gay_ panic so let me just stop you right there before you say something that’s gonna just piss me off…” Abby placed a hand on Erin’s shoulder and pushed her back.

 

Erin felt like she might fall but then felt the stool behind her legs and sat down promptly, Abby’s hand remained on her shoulder.

 

“I love you and I will always have your back, even when you say or do things that hurt me – but Holtzmann, she’s my friend, too. And as her friend, it is my job to make sure that nobody else hurts her – so before you go and think that you’re suddenly going to be ridiculed because you’re gay – or I’d really say _bi_ at this point, just take a moment to consider that that girl is probably the best thing that has ever happened to any of us, and I think that if you’d pull your head out of your ass and stop caring about what other people think, you’d find she could make you undoubtedly happy,” Abby finished with a clap on her shoulder.

 

Erin was wide-eyed and silent, staring up at Abby like she’d just told Erin that ghosts weren’t real and the last eight months of her life had been one long comatose trip and that she was back in reality… but no, this was infinitely scarier.

 

Holtzmann _liked_ Erin… and Erin – she blinked finally.

 

“Holtz-” Erin choked, not sure what to say.

 

“Hey guys, so you won’t believe – whoa, Gilbert, what happened to you? You look like you’d done seen a ghost-” Holtzmann chuckled at her own quip and Abby even cracked a smile at the engineer.

 

“I think Erin here has something she needs to discuss with you,” Abby said pointedly to Holtzmann, but her tone was clearly meant to tell Erin to get her shit together and fast.

 

Erin felt like she may be sick. Holtzmann looked at Erin, confusion written on her features, then watched Abby walk away before turning her attention back to the physicist.

 

“Seriously, Erin, you okay?” Holtzmann’s voice softened, much like it usually did when the two of them found themselves alone together. Holtzmann was always somehow softer, _gentler_ around Erin when it was the two of them – something that Erin felt the engineer didn’t share with everyone else and made her feel privileged to see such a side to their whacky munitions expert.

 

“Y-yeah, just – uhm… so – that thing you said? Back there to Dr. Gorin?” Erin cleared her throat.

 

“What? About the safety lights?” Holtzmann quirked a brow. “They’re totally for dudes anyway, but don’t worry, I won’t throw a party here if you really don’t think it’s a good idea -”

 

“No, not – not _that_. I meant – what you said about-” the redhead gestured between herself and the blonde. “You and I? You said we were dating… why?” Holtzmann froze for a moment, as if in thought and then her features yielded in clarification.

 

“Oh, yeah – well I figured it was worth a shot, but don’t worry, I’ll ask you another time, I-”

 

“Wait… _that_ was you asking me on a date?” Erin felt her voice squeak at the end.

 

“Well, yeah… I mean – I’ve been trying for months but I figured I’d have to actually _say_ that we were in order for you to understand – I mean… no offense to your beautiful brain, Erin but sometimes you can be really daft,” Holtzmann said affectionately, softly poking Erin on her forehead. Erin batted her hand away, unable to help the small smile beginning to form on her lips.

 

“You’re not exactly making a good case for why I should agree to date you,” Erin glared playfully. Holtzmann threw her head back with a chortle and rolled her eyes.

 

“Okay, then, how about this?”

 

If Erin had not already been sitting, she was certain she’d have fallen down by now. Holtzmann had reached forward and cupped Erin’s cheeks with both hands, crashing her lips down on the physicists’ own. They slid perfectly in sync and Erin melted into the kiss as soon as the shock wore off, her eyes closing and feeling a moan bubble up her chest as her body became a livewire that only Holtzmann knew how to tame.

 

One of Holtzmann’s hands cupped her jaw and the other slid back into Erin’s hair, helping tilt her head back more for better access as Holtzmann’s tongue swept out along Erin’s bottom lip and Erin gratefully complied, feeling heat settle uncomfortably in the seat of her jeans as Holtzmann sucked Erin’s bottom lip into her mouth, nibbling before her tongue met Erin’s and both women groaned as Erin felt her own hands grab at Holtzmann’s hips and pull the younger woman into her lap.

 

Holtzmann straddled her, kiss still going strong and Erin whimpered softly as Holtzmann’s hand in her hair tightened and tugged just enough to send shocks of pleasure straight down her spine and pool into her belly.

 

The kiss finally broke when both women’s breathing became too uneven, Holtzmann let out a soft whine at the loss of contact and pressed their foreheads together as they both struggled to take in air whilst the blonde practically straddled Erin in the middle of her lab.

 

Their chests heaved and everywhere their bodies touched Erin swore she could feel the energy of their atoms synchronizing and creating a delicious heat.

 

“So, is this enough to convince you to give me a shot?” Holtzmann finally asked as her own breathing returned to semi-normal.

 

Erin locked eyes with the engineer who’s naturally baby blues were practically black with her blown pupils, desire imminent in her gaze as she caressed Erin’s jawline with her thumb.

 

“I think that the results are inconclusive, I’m going to need a bit more convi – sorry, _testing_ before I can determine a steady conclusion,” Holtzmann’s smirk grew into an impossibly wide, but genuine smile.

 

“Well then, allow me to assist you with that,” and Holtzmann leaned in for another phase of tests.

 

-FIN-

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews feed this Bard's dark soul. :3


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